Month: December 2015

With everyday life becoming more rushed, and the workplace becoming more demanding, it’s becoming more and more common to suffer from stress. Writing about a stressful event, or about your dreams for the future, can help to fight this growing menace.

Here are two techniques for alleviating stress with the help of pen and paper:

Write about something good that happened to you that day: Our brain is programmed to remember negative occurrences, so it’s necessary to do something to help remind our brain of the good things. With this technique, we can stop our brains from forgetting and giving less importance to positivity. Once per day, write down three good things that happened to you, and explain why they were important. This will help your brain see the positive as equal to the negative, and you will start to see good things far more easily. Studies show that people who do this have increased general satisfaction, and fewer symptoms of depression.

Unload your thoughts onto paper: If your thoughts accumulate, snowball, and wind up leaving you anxious (especially when you’re trying to sleep), jot down all of your thoughts and plans. Writing all of your thoughts on paper helps to take some of the weight off of you, at least temporarily, until you’re ready to come back to your issues and are better able to deal with them.

Writing acts as an escape valve, and helps to regulate your mood. Try these techniques, and you’ll see results.